KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) faced significant selling pressure on Monday, with its benchmark KSE-100 Index closing down by over 1,500 points, or 1.32%, at 112,745.01.
The market mirrored global trends, reacting negatively to US President Donald Trump's announcement of tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. While the KSE-100 started the session positively, reaching an intra-day high of 114,620.79, strong selling in the latter hours pushed it to a low of 112,681.34. Brokerage firm Topline Securities attributed the downturn to the ripple effect of Trump's tariff announcement, which had a global impact, including in Pakistan. Key stocks like ENGROH, MARI, FFC, SYS, and PPL contributed significantly to the index's losses. Meanwhile, Intermarket Securities noted that despite global pressure, the domestic market is driven by local liquidity and remains focused on Pakistan's political developments, particularly a PTI rally scheduled for February 8. International markets also felt the effects of Trump's tariff policies.
Chinese stocks, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, and Gulf markets saw declines, with the yuan weakening to a record low. The Pakistani rupee also depreciated marginally by 0.03% against the US dollar, closing at 279.04. Trading volume on the all-share index dropped, and the total value of shares decreased from Rs27.97 billion to Rs20.35 billion. WorldCall Telecom led trading with 26.26 million shares.
